The front of this house in Kraków, Poland, is curved dramatically up towards the sky so that Polish architect Tadeusz Lemański could squeeze a garage underneath (+ slideshow).
Tadeusz Lemański designed the building – known as Domo Dom – for a single resident who was keen to have a garage in his home, despite local planning rules that tightly restricted the size and shape of the new structure.
"The main idea of the project was to design each room in the way that they do not lose anything from their functionality," explained the architect. "At the same time, the house has to meet land development conditions that impose using gable roofs."
Lemański's solution was to create a single-storey volume and abstract it, so the end angles up towards the sky. This allowed a boxy garage volume to be slotted in underneath.
"The concept of the house is a simple cube that includes the main functions – living room, kitchenette and bedroom," he said. "In order to fulfil the development conditions, the bedroom was lifted to the loft and the garage was moved under it."
The house is located in a suburban neighbourhood on the edge of Wolski Forest, west Kraków. To echo the materials used on the more traditional neighbouring structures, the architect specified grey sandstone and black titanium-zinc panels for the exterior cladding.
The contrasting shades of these two materials also help to emphasise the division between the main living spaces and the garage.
The garage door fronts the building, so the main entrance is situated along one of the side walls.
It leads through to a compact hallway with a combined living room and kitchen to the left, a bathroom in front, and a staircase on the right that leads up to the first-floor bedroom.
Two side windows are angled to match the slope of the staircase, which runs alongside the garage wall.
"Their shape underlines the dynamism of the building that rises in the same direction," added Lemański.
In the bedroom, the unusual shape of the roof creates a ceiling that rises up to a point then curves down so much that it almost meets the floor.
Three skylights bring daylight into the space, while built-in wooden fittings offer seating and storage.
At the rear of the house, a wall of glazing allows the resident to open his living space out to an elevated terrace and a lawn.
Photography is by Tomasz Zakrzewski.
